TOWER GROVE — Five thousand at-bats into his career, baseball great Babe Ruth had already shattered home run records and set the gobsmacking standard with his 60 homers in 1927. He had also been a two-time 20-game winner as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Five thousand at-bats into his career, the Splendid Splinter Ted Williams had his .406-average season and two Triple Crowns. Five thousand at-bats into their careers, Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg had three seasons with at least 150 RBIs and Iron Horse Lou Gehrig had started his famous streak and had three seasons with at least 170 RBIs.

Otherwise, 5,000 at-bats into his career … Albert Pujols is right there with them.

The St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and reigning National League MVP had the 5,000th at-bat of his career in the first inning of Thursday’s victory. He grounded into a double play. But what he has done in the previous 4,999 at-bats of his career puts him in elite company. He walks with giants like Williams, Gehrig and Greenberg — all of whom share something that Pujols does not: They played their careers in the American League. What could arguably be the best 5,000 at-bats to start a career in the National League is where today’s 10@10 begins …

1. Pujols’ 744 extra-base hits in his first 5,000 at-bats rank fourth all time, and are the most ever by an NL player in his first 5,000 ABs. Last night, on MLB Network they ran down the top five extra-base totals in baseball history through the first 5,000 ABs in any career:

• Babe Ruth … 863 XB hits
• Hank Greenberg … 762 XB hits
• Lou Gehrig … 761 XB hits
• Albert Pujols … 744 XB hits
• Ted Williams … 743 XB hits

2. Attempted to run the numbers on each of the above hitters and what they had when they reached their 5,000th at-bat. Easier said than done in one morning. So, here’s what I did: I got their totals as close to 5,000 AB as possible. Greenberg, for example, had a career total of 5,193 at-bats. The others had natural breaks relatively close to 5,000 ABs. For context, then, here are where the above five hitters were across the back of their baseball cards as close to 5,000 ABs as possible with the numbers I had handy this morning (and remember slash lines go BA/OBP/SLG):

Ruth … 4,958 AB … .349/.480/.709 … 416 HR … 1,269 RBI

Greenberg … 5,193 AB … .313/.412/.605 … 331 HR … 1,276 RBI

Gehrig … 5,135 AB … .342/.442/.636 … 299 HR … 1,285 RBI

Pujols … 5,003 AB … .333/.426/.628 … 358 HR … 1,082 RBI

Williams … 5,096 AB … .347/.484/.634 … 324 HR … 1,264 RBI

3. John Smoltz’s most effective pitch this season has been his slider, but he’s famous for his split-finger fastball, a pitch that few of the Cardinals sport on the current pitching staff. Ryan Franklin has toyed with one because basically there isn’t a pitch he hasn’t tried throwing. Smoltz once said of his splitter: “It’s thrown hard and has such late-breaking movement that it gives guys less chance to recognize it. I want the splitter to start where my fastball ends up and disappear.” The addition of Smoltz and his split to the pitching staff stirred a simple poll question:

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4. Brendan Ryan’s grand slam Thursday was the first of his career (obviously) and it was also the first hit by a National League Central player at Petco Park. In 469 games at San Diego’s new ballpark, there have been 12 grand slams hit.  Only three of them have been hit by shortstops. Two of those shortstops are now on the Cardinals roster, but Ryan is the only visiting shortstop to his a grand slam at Petco. The other two: Khalil Greene and Everth Cabrera. The grand slam was only Ryan’s second career high with the bases loaded in the major leagues. He was, before the shot to left-center field, 1-for-10 with the bases loaded.

5. Some quick numbers to know: Mark DeRosa’s three walks on Thursday doubled his total for the month of August and are two more than he had in any previous game played with the Cardinals. … Bob Howry made history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The walk-off homer he allowed Thursday to Cincinnati Reds’ rookie Drew Stubbs was the third winning homer he’s allowed to a rookie this season. No other reliever had done that in a career, let alone a season, according to Elias. Colby Rasmus was one of those rookies, hitting a walk-off homer off Howry on July 1. Garrett Jones was the other rookie to hit a game-ending home run off Howry. … In his 10 previous games before Thursday, Yadier Molina had six two-hit games. Entering last night’s game, Molina had a .407 average in August. In that 10-game span mentioned, Molina hit .457 with a .600 slugging percentage and a .513 on-base percentage. The Cardinals were 9-1 in those games. … Picked up the new Bill James Gold Mine 2009, and saw this statistic that we totaled up here in Bird Land over the winter: “If games had ended after six innings in the 2008 season, the Cardinals would have won the NL Central by seven full games and finished 8 games ahead of the third-place Cubs.”

6. In case you did not see this late last night: Chris Duncan, on the trip back from the Pawtucket Red Sox game, was released by the Boston Red Sox. He was told shortly after flying out to end the game. The news is available here at the Providence Journal, the questions about whether or not he will — or really should — return to the Cardinals have already started.

7. Shelby Miller’s hometown paper has a rundown on what the newest Cardinal did in his first few days as a teenage millionaire. After his press conference here in St. Louis next Tuesday, Miller will head to Low-A Quad Cities, which is where the Cardinals would like him to start next season — so that he’s at a full-season affiliate and not starting his pro career in extended spring training.

8. FARMNIK REPORT: One prospect probably overlooked as a candidate for the (radically) revised top 10 is the young starter still working his way through High-A Palm Beach. Richard Castillo is 5-12 with a 4.27 ERA. He has 90 strikeouts and 62 walks in his 128 2/3 innings, and before last night he had lost four consecutive starts. Not really the numbers of a top prospect, but remember Castillo has yet turned 20. Castillo pitched six scoreless innings in a no-decision Thursday. He struck out six, and his breakout last season shouldn’t be so easily forgotten when listing the possible top prospects for next season. … Recently drafted third baseman, Matt Carpenter went 3-for-5 with two runs scored for Palm Beach. … Chris Swauger’s third hit of the game drove in Carpenter in the 10th inning for a 3-2 victory. … Righthander Blake King got the victory after working two scoreless innnings in relief. … Catcher Brandon Yarbrough went 2-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs for Triple-A Memphis in a victory against Fresno. … First-round pick Adam Ottavino pitched 8 1/3 strong innings. He allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out three to net his seventh victory of the season. … Scott Gorgen didn’t survive the second inning for Springfield. The righthander allowed six runs (all earned) on seven hits and two walks in a loss. … Gary Daley Jr. pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the S-Cards. … Alan Ahmady drove in two runs in the 13th inning to give Batavia a 3-0 victory.

9. Wrote yesterday about how the Cardinals and Dodgers have played 2,000 games and are within one win of each other in the all-time record. Same thing with the Dodgers and Cubs. Last night’s victory by the Dodgers snapped an all-time tie, putting the Brooklyn originals ahead 1,015 wins to the Cubs’ 1,014 wins in the series.

10. Quick links: A story in this week’s Sports Illustrated takes on the interesting topic of whatever happened to the baseball card industry on the eve of Major League Baseball turning to Topps as its card manufacturer. The story focuses on the holy grail of my youth, the 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card that started the inaugural Upper Deck set.  Friend Michael Rosenberg rings in with an excellent column on the subject of that card, Jr. himself, in his twilight.

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